“And up here, my dear assistant, we have some hidden signs. Bruises that had vanished from her skin are still lurking beneath.” Discolouration of the tissue structures showed distinctive prints of what could very likely have been hands. “Conclusion?”
“The poor bitch got herself strangled.”
“Ha.” Mr Geung snorted. “Poor bitch.”
“That’s enough, you two. Show some respect for the dead.”
“What do we do now?”
“We write this all up so clearly that even a judge can understand it. Then we keep our mouths tightly shut, and wait for Inspector Phosy to come back tomorrow. Dtui, dearest, we’ll need a third copy of this, for security. Can you get one more layer of carbon through that typewriter?”
“The words might be a bit flatter, but I think so.”
“Good. We’ll put this nice lady back together and send her to Mrs Nan, the embalmer. I’ll start clearing up the office. We have a guest this evening.”
¦
At 6.15, Siri was alone at his desk. He’d stopped earlier at the little room they called a library and taken out the Vietnamese file. It was in his shoulder bag now, on top of the old green cabinet. As the sky darkened, he felt suddenly vulnerable again. He had the walk home ahead of him, and he’d be carrying evidence someone was willing to kill for.
Before vegetable-and-fruit duty, Geung had ridden over to the market and bought the biggest padlock they had, and two sets of hasps. The salesman told Geung people had stopped buying them, but those people obviously weren’t getting shot at.
His reverie was disturbed by the flap of rubber sandals on the concrete step. The pregnant sister entered nervously. Siri rose to escort her in.
“Thank you for coming. Your husband didn’t come with you?”
“He’s playing cards.” Siri wondered about his priorities. “And he ain’t my husband.”
“Is this his?” Siri pointed to her round belly. It poked out like a knot in the bark of a tall young tree. She nodded without enthusiasm.
“Sit down, will you? Drink?”
“No.”
Siri pulled his chair around to her side of the desk and spoke quietly. “When we were talking this afternoon, what made you say Mai didn’t kill herself?”
“Because she…she didn’t care.”
“About what?”
“About anything. Nothing worried her. It was all a big game.”
“What was?”
“Life, work, love. Everything.”
“Did she come to Vientiane for love?”
“She come looking for it.”
“You don’t think she might have followed someone down here? Someone she was having an affair with in Xam Neua, for example?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. We talked about everything. She come to Vientiane ‘cause I was here. She come to find herself a rich husband. She was pretty enough.” Her eyes had reddened and Siri could see the ceiling lightbulb reflect in the tears waiting there. “She wasn’t short of fans. It was one of them set her up in the room. She wasn’t whoring, don’t get me wrong. It was all strict romance.”
“Do you know who he was?”
“The room? Just one of the horny bastards that was after her.”
“Did she talk about him?”
“She talked about all of them.”
“Was there someone special? An older man? Someone important.”
“There was some ancient old codger…no offence. He was chasing after her.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“No. My man doesn’t let me go out. This is different tonight, ‘cause this is a hospital. I told him I was having the baby checked out. He dropped me off. But with Mai, I only ever got to talk with her when she come over to see me. I didn’t meet any of her fellows.”
“Does your man know you’re taking her back to Xam Neua?”
“No.”
“You coming back?”
She smiled. “You know a lot, don’t you? No, I ain’t coming back. He ain’t what I’d want for my baby’s father.”
“That’s very brave of you.”
“It’s in the blood. We was both really stubborn, me and Mai. You’ve looked already, haven’t you?”
“Yes. I’ve looked.”
“She didn’t, did she?”
“No.”
She sighed with relief, and the sigh unlocked tears. They rolled down her cheeks, and sobs heaved in her chest. Siri ripped some tissue from the roll on his desk, and she blew her nose.
“Thank you. What happened?” she asked.
“Someone strangled her. Then they set it up to look like suicide.”
“I knew she wouldn’t.” She seemed somehow relieved. It was as if she could cope with the idea that her sister had been murdered far better than if she’d killed herself.
“She’s with an embalmer I know. She’ll make your sister look presentable for your family, and I’ll arrange for the body to be shipped up north.” He started to write down Mrs Nan’s address, then stopped. “Can you read?”
She shook her head. “No, sir.”
“Okay. I’ll get Nan to come to your shop. When everything’s ready, she’ll find a way to let you know.”
She took both of his hands in hers, which was the most generous thank-you she could give. She didn’t mention revenge or ask about justice, perhaps because she’d never known any herself. But Siri wanted her to believe in it.
“I’m going to find the man who killed your sister. I promise you and your family. Can you remember anything about her men that would help me identify them?”
“I can’t think right now.”
“I understand. If anything comes to you, you know where I am. But, in the meantime, you aren’t to say a word to anyone about murder. Not
“Don’t worry.” She ripped off more tissue and wiped her face. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful. Really beautiful.”
She smiled, unconvinced but happier, and walked from the office. Siri collapsed back into his chair. Encounters with the living always drained him more than those with the dead. And women most of all. Give him a dead man over a live woman any day.
¦
There hadn’t been a day of his marriage that he hadn’t loved Boua. But the last three years of her life had stretched that love to its limit. She’d always been stronger than he in many ways. The few arguments he didn’t lose because he deserved to, he lost because it was wise to do so. As she got older, her fuse got shorter.
She couldn’t contain her frustration over the tortoise pace of her revolution. It was as if she’d opened the chest where all her girlhood dreams were kept, dreams of a world full of fairness and logic and happiness. And all she found in there were the shrivelled remains. Once she started to believe her army had neither the commitment nor the unselfishness to form an administration solely for the people, she changed.
She didn’t seem to notice it herself, but she began to punish Siri for her disappointments. He never raised his voice to her, or defended himself in public when she belittled him. He was a doctor and she was a woman with an
